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Censorship and Surveillance are Population Control Strategies
If your eyes are open, you are seeing it everywhere. Government and Big Tech Companies like Facebook are colluding to control the masses in America and the world. Its scary to see this happen at home and all the more unnerving to see it happen around the globe. Every article I read today felt like a dark omen of very uncomfortable times. I share these articles not to increase the anxiety that some of us are facing but to warn so you may be prepared, as best you can be.
I found these stories on ReclaimTheNet which focuses its news coverage on free speech and privacy issues. If you have not subscribed to their website, I recommend that you do. All the info I’m sharing happened in the past 30 days. A lot of what is suppressed in the mainstream can be found on Reclaim The Net.
Police in Australia turn up on doorsteps with print-outs of citizens’ anti-lockdown Facebook posts
Australia has had a particularly difficult pandemic. Not necessarily because of COVID numbers, but because of what many see as a rapid erosion of human rights and dubious, rushed workarounds of the country’s long-standing standards and legislation in this area.
Strict lockdowns of entire neighborhoods of big cities, for instance, are still a thing down under; some apps mandated for contact tracing have in the meantime devolved into tools of mass surveillance.
And never far behind this are abuses and/or harassment of people that happens wherever authoritarianism starts gaining a foothold.
And so a number of popular Twitter accounts are sharing videos uploaded by Australians who had the police show up at their doors to question – or as one of them said, intimidate them.
In one chilling video, officers are inquiring about a citizen’ Facebook posts they thought meant he had been attending an anti-lockdown protest – six months earlier.
Google is working to steer your thinking by sharing “context”
Imagine you do a search about President Biden and you see a search result with a negative headline. Google is working to place that search result in “context” where they may say, “…that article is from a disreputable source, consider these other sources that paint him in a better light. Do you want to read those?” Okay, I’m exaggerating. Yet, I don’t think I’m too far off the mark. Here is a quote.
“There’s a lot of information in the world from different sources, some unfamiliar,” said Harris Cohen, a product manager on Google’s consumer trust team. “Lots of people are concerned about mis- and disinformation. Across lots of areas, this tool really helps them with that journey.”
The new feature comes amid increasing accusations from politicians that Big Tech platforms are not doing enough to combat online misinformation and disinformation. Already, Google Search gives priority to sources it deems authoritative.
Facebook whistleblower says moderators could see users’ chat messages
There is no privacy on Facebook. You are fooling yourself if you think differently. Some people say they have nothing to hide, why worry? I would ask, why do you lock your door at night? Why do you have blinds on your windows? And how many times have people’s identities been stolen? How susceptible are you to blackmail? Sigh. Here is a quote.
Sitting down on the Patrick Bet-David Podcast, Facebook whistleblower Shawn Speagle made some shocking comments about how moderation worked at Facebook, at least until his departure in 2019.
Speagle was a content moderator who worked for one of Facebook’s content moderation subcontractors called Cognizant.
In episode 98 of the podcast, published this week, Speagle announced that it was possible for some third-party contractors to read user’s people’s direct messages with little oversight.
“So, you guys were able to see what’s being said in the instant messages and text messages, or no?” host Patrick Bet-David asked.
“Yes,” Speagle answered.
Bet-David pressed further: “So whatever we post on there and we are communicating, you see all of it?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Speagle confirmed.
Laughing and seeming not believing what he was hearing, Bet-David asked again, “…if you wanted to see all of it, you could easily see it?”
“Yes, yes,” Speagle answered.
When Yellen said it was all “routine” that signaled to me a low-regard for the privacy of the American people. See below.
According to proposals from the Biden administration, banks would be forced to provide aggregate credit and debit figures to the IRS every year, and the idea would apply to all bank accounts having at least $600 in balance or at least $600 in transactions.
We covered the controversial bank surveillance proposals in more detail here.
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she supported the plan.
When asked about the new surveillance that many Americans feel is a violation of privacy, Yellen informed CNBC’s Squawk Box co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin that the “collection of information is routine.”
Secret warrants against Google search terms are on the rise
This is one of those things where you go, “Wow, I didn’t know that was legal.” Imagine you are a novelist doing research for a murder mystery. If you type in “how to get away with murder” today, the police could have a warrant out for your arrest tomorrow. Literally. (Yet, another reason to switch to DuckDuckGo.) Check out this quote…
In order to find the suspects in the presumed kidnapping and sexual abuse of the minor, those investigating the case decided to ask Google to turn over data on every person who happened to search the girl’s name, her mother’s name (in two different spellings), or their address. The data requested by the authorities included access to Google users’ accounts, CookieIDs, and their IP addresses, and in all covered Google searches performed during 16 days of one year.
In a sea of warrants asking data from Big Tech and their social media, the keyword searches, along with the geofence ones are considered to be among the most worrying when it comes to their potential to implicate perfectly innocent people, thanks to the “dragnet” approach.
Namely, these two types of warrants are not asking for data from suspects investigators have already identified; instead, they are hoping to come across them, and don’t care if everyone accidentally finding themselves within a physical perimeter or using a keyword in their search that has nothing to do with a crime might have their data given to government agencies.
UK Ministry of Defense proposal calls for more social media surveillance
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has published a data strategy promoting the idea of the British armed forces conducting social media surveillance on behalf of local governments.
The document, which is about the armed forces making better use of their existing data, says that the military should conduct “automated scanning of social media platforms” to identify any “change in population sentiment.”
“Decision making is enhanced by local surveillance of groups of interest,” the MoD wrote in the document. The MoD believes that spying on the social media rants of angered citizens can help “local authorities” to come up with “heightened readiness measures.”
The document, however, does not explain why the military should collect social media data to be used for non-military purposes. Besides, for years, private companies have been tracking social media sentiment not only for marketing but also for government agencies.
Microsoft’s LinkedIn censors US journalists in China
LinkedIn blocked the profiles of American journalists in China to comply with the Chinese government’s regulations. LinkedIn is the only major US-based platform allowed to operate in China after it agreed to comply with the CCP’s extreme social media regulations.
The journalists, whose LinkedIn profiles are no longer available for users in China, include Axios’ Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, who reports on China-related issues.
In a series of tweets blasting LinkedIn for the censorship of US journalists, Allen-Ebrahimian recommended that LinkedIn should allow users to create a separate profile for the Chinese version of the platform. She also encouraged Congress to come up with legislation to prevent platforms from conducting such censorship of journalists.
What if you were fired for sharing a meme but, not told what meme it was?
Police Constable Lee Scott of the Northumbria Police Force in England was fired for comments about Black Lives Matter and LGBTs, as well as sharing a meme that circulated in conservative circles. He was put on suspension after his “offensive” Facebook activity was reported by a colleague.
The UK’s Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigated the officer’s comments, saying they were deemed “offensive, inappropriate, or discriminatory in nature.” But the law enforcement watchdog refused to cite the exact comments that put the officer in trouble.
I could have EASILY cited more stories like the ones cited above. They are everywhere and it is very, very concerning. Keep praying. Use big tech alternatives. Protect yourself. Reclaim The Net has resources that can help you in this regard.
- Private Search Engines
- Free speech friendly Discord alternatives
- Private web browsers
- Private messaging apps
And if you have an interest in private email, I highly recommend Fastmail.
THANK YOU!
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